Chapter 1

At the beginning of winter, there was no sign of snow in the southwestern region. Instead, the weather was colder and gloomier than when it snowed. The air was chilly, and it had been drizzling for the past few days. The desolate mountains and wilderness, combined with the rain, made it seem like a ghostly wasteland with no sign of human life.

Xu Qinyu, wrapped in a raincoat, shivered under a tall pine tree. The tree’s dense branches shielded her from most of the wind and rain. Even so, she was still somewhat wet and cold. She couldn’t help but hug herself tightly. She was still a bit dazed. She hadn’t expected that after winning the World-Class Chef championship and taking a nap in the car on her way back to the hotel, she would feel a sharp pain as if she had been in a car accident and then wake up in this ancient dynasty.

She had arrived in this ancient dynasty three days ago, a place that wasn’t even part of any historical period she knew. This body had the same name as hers, Xu Qinyu, but she was an orphan who had been abandoned at the entrance of a welfare home as a child. The original owner of this body, however, was the second legitimate daughter of the Dechang Marquis Mansion.

In ancient times, the Marquis Mansion was a noble family. As the legitimate daughter of such a family, she should have lived a good life, but she was sickly and on the road to exile. The reason for the original owner’s exile was also absurd.

Although she was the second legitimate daughter of the second branch of the Dechang Marquis Mansion, her father was the least favored among his siblings. Her grandparents always supported the first and third branches. Her father, a minor official with a monthly salary of four taels of silver, had little to offer. As a result, the original owner had barely enough to eat and drink, and her clothing and accessories were not as good as those of the first and third branches.

The Dechang Marquis Mansion also had an eldest daughter and a third daughter. The eldest daughter was already married, and the third daughter, Xu Qinwei, was betrothed to the fourth prince. However, one morning, the engagement to the fourth prince was transferred to the original owner, the second daughter.

This was because the fourth prince was to be exiled.

The eldest son of the empress, the fourth prince’s brother, had lost the battle for the throne to the second prince, born of a concubine. The eldest prince’s faction was accused of poisoning the late emperor and attempting to usurp the throne. The eldest prince was executed, and the fourth prince, a sickly person, along with his mute younger brother, the seventh prince, and their sister, the sixth princess, were all exiled to the southwest. To show mercy, the new emperor exiled the entire empress’s family, including her maiden family.

Since the fourth prince was to be exiled, the Dechang Marquis Mansion couldn’t bear to let the third daughter, Xu Qinwei, marry him. Somehow, the engagement was transferred to the original owner overnight.

Before the empress’s family was exiled, the new emperor conferred the fourth prince the title of King Xu. The title “Xu” was a homophone for “commoner” and also meant “servant,” clearly intended as an insult.

The Dechang Marquis Mansion feared being accused of ingratitude for breaking off the engagement with King Xu due to his exile. To avoid gossip and protect their reputation, they sent the original owner to King Xu’s mansion in a bridal sedan chair the night before the empress’s family was exiled. The next day, the original owner followed the empress’s family into exile in the southwest.

The original owner of this body had a somewhat weak personality and didn’t dare to resist. She had someone she liked and was ready to discuss marriage, but a decree forced her to marry someone she didn’t like and suffer the hardship of exile. Along the way, she was depressed and fell seriously ill after a month, eventually losing consciousness. Perhaps it was because of this that she died, and Xu Qinyu, who had died in a car accident, took over her body.

A few days ago, although she was shocked to find herself in this situation, she had been ill and never fully conscious, so she couldn’t care about anything else. She could only rest as much as possible to preserve her life. In the past few days, she had finally regained some clarity, but she had to continue the journey, naturally feeling bewildered.

Xu Qinyu looked at the dark sky, feeling a heavy and bitter heart.

In such an environment and with such an identity, survival was truly not easy.

“Yuniang, drink this water.” Suddenly, a thin, frostbitten woman approached. She wore a worn-out long coat and a raincoat, but she was still drenched and looked miserable. She held a water bottle and looked at Xu Qinyu.

This woman was the original owner’s mother-in-law, the former empress, and now the exiled imperial concubine, Madam Wen.

Of course, from the moment they were exiled, even though the new emperor had conferred the title of King Xu and imperial concubine on them, they were just criminals and commoners.

Xu Qinyu glanced at Madam Wen and licked her dry lips. She was both thirsty and hungry, and her health was not good. She didn’t dare to drink dirty water for fear of diarrhea, which could be fatal in this situation.

Since the original owner fell ill, Madam Wen’s family felt guilty and had been treating her well, giving her whatever little food and drink they had.

“Yuniang, drink it quickly. You just recovered from an illness and can’t drink dirty water, which can cause diarrhea. This is some clean water I got from the soldiers. Drink it.”

Madam Wen brought the water bottle to Xu Qinyu’s mouth.

Xu Qinyu, being a skilled chef, had a keen sense of smell and taste. She detected a faint rice fragrance from the water bottle, indicating that it was not just clean water but thin rice porridge.

When she was a child, she was an orphan and lived in a welfare home from as far back as she could remember, surviving on government subsidies. There were many children in the welfare home, and resources were scarce. Even though the caretakers tried to distribute food fairly, the bigger kids often took food from the smaller ones. She was always hungry until she decided she couldn’t take it anymore and bit a bigger kid who tried to take her food. After that, no one dared to bully her again.

Perhaps because she often didn’t have enough to eat or good food at the welfare home, she became very particular about food. As a child, she frequently experimented with cooking, and her food tasted good. By the time she was in middle and high school, she would set up a food stall after school and during holidays, which became very popular.

Gradually, she gained some fame and developed many private recipes. She started her own business while in college, and by the time she graduated, she had opened a private restaurant, which grew into a chain of private restaurants. She amassed a fortune of tens of millions and, at the age of twenty-seven, won the title of World-Class Chef, shocking and impressing everyone. She planned to retire and focus on researching recipes, but unexpectedly, she found herself transported back to a time before liberation, losing everything.

No! It wasn’t just that she lost everything; this was even worse than her days in the welfare home. It was like starting in hell mode.

Xu Qinyu felt a mess inside, subconsciously holding the water bottle and taking a sip. It was indeed rice porridge, but there were only a few grains of rice, making it very thin. It was likely that Madam Wen had exchanged some silver or jewelry with the soldiers guarding them for this.

Xu Qinyu didn’t continue drinking. Madam Wen’s family, all five of them, hadn’t eaten for a day. She handed the water bottle to a thin girl with a big head, about eleven or twelve years old, next to her. “Ning Jie’er, have a sip.”

Ning Jie’er was Madam Wen’s youngest daughter, the former sixth princess, Pei Jianing. The little girl had a hard time on this journey. She used to be plump and round, but now she was as thin as a bean sprout.

Pei Jianing bit her lip and retorted, “I won’t drink it. You drink it yourself.”

She wasn’t angry at her fourth sister-in-law, who was also innocent.

Fourth Sister-in-law had endured many hardships along the way with them, but Mother used the last bit of silver to exchange for this mouthful of rice porridge for Fourth Sister-in-law. How would they survive when they reached the unfamiliar southwestern region without any silver? Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to say anything about not saving someone. She was just angry at herself for not hiding some gold leaves and jewelry when they left the palace. She had been too proud to believe that a princess would be exiled and didn’t prepare anything.

Xu Qinyu didn’t care if her sister-in-law was angry. She shoved the water bottle into her mouth.

Smelling the rice fragrance inside, Pei Jianing swallowed her saliva and finally couldn’t resist taking a sip. The rice porridge, which she once couldn’t swallow without delicate side dishes and snacks, now tasted incredibly sweet.

Pei Jianing took a sip and handed the water bottle to the younger girl curled up in her mother’s arms. This was the only bloodline left from the eldest prince’s family, her little niece.

In the end, the thin rice porridge was shared among the Pei family. The water bottle was finally handed to a pale, handsome man under another pine tree. He had a beautiful appearance, but his face and lips were pale and very weak. His phoenix eyes showed no emotion, and his hair, wet from the rain, clung to his pale cheeks as he closed his eyes to rest.

He was Xu Qinyu’s husband, the newly titled King Xu by the new emperor, now reduced to a commoner, Pei Weixuan. He had been weak and sickly since childhood, which was why he had narrowly escaped death.

So, the Pei family was left with only the old, weak, sick, and disabled. Otherwise, the new emperor would have found a way to kill them all.

Xu Qinyu watched as Pei Weixuan drank the last sip of rice porridge from the bottle and leaned against the pine tree with his eyes closed.

Throughout the journey, she was in a daze, but she always remembered that it was her husband who carried her step by step, keeping up with the group’s pace. At least the Pei family hadn’t abandoned her or left her to die by the roadside.

Xu Qinyu looked at the distant mountains under the dark sky. The rain was getting heavier, and the wind made the trees sway wildly, making the forest seem like a monstrous creature.

The heavy rain poured down with no sign of stopping, and the surroundings were filled with the worried faces of the exiled families and the soldiers’ curses.

Xu Qinyu rubbed her still-growling stomach. She needed to find a way to get everyone a hot meal. Otherwise, given their current physical condition, even if they were only a few days’ journey from the place of exile, the old, weak, sick, and disabled family wouldn’t make it. They couldn’t die on the road; she didn’t want to die again.

The mountains in the southwest were different from those in the north. In winter, the northern mountains had nothing, but the southwest was warm and humid, with no severe cold. There were still animals in the mountains; even if there were no animals, the mountains were full of mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots, and wild vegetables that could satisfy their immediate hunger. They needed to fill their stomachs first. But how could she negotiate with the soldiers to borrow some cooking utensils and go into the mountains to find edible wild vegetables and mushrooms?

Before Xu Qinyu could think further, a few small stones mixed with mud suddenly rolled down the mountain behind her. In the terrifying rainstorm, this small movement didn’t disturb anyone.